Prior to Walker's attempted heroics, Boston's Antoine Walker
banked in an off-balance 3-pointer with 1.2 seconds left to give
the Celtics their first lead.

"Robert Horry went for the first pump-fake," Walker said.
"People won't believe it, but I tried to bank it in because he
was all over me, and I know he has long arms. It was a big shot
for us."

"I kind of read the play and tried to step out there and get
him, and he stopped three feet behind the line, hit a fadeaway
leaning to the right, bank shot three," Horry said. "When you
hit a shot like that, there's nothing you can do."

Bryant received the inbounds pass on the right baseline, faked
Paul Pierce and swished his attempt. But after a minute of
discussion, the officials disallowed the shot, saying Bryant had
not released the ball in time.

Television replays indicated the ball was still on Bryant's
fingertips as time expired.

"From my understanding it was one official's call," Bryant said.
"He was the one that decided it wasn't good. It felt good to
me. I thought it was off before the horn sounded. I always
listen for the horn. Two officials said it was good, and for
one to come in and overturn it in such a close situation, I just
don't agree with that too much."

"I am going with what the refs say," Pierce said. "I didn't
think he got it off. I jumped in there, took a second off the
clock, he gave me a pump fake. I saw once he pump-faked, that is
the game."

Bryant hit 1-of-2 free throws with 3:40 remaining to give the
Lakers a 103-91 advantage. But Boston mounted a furious rally
and tied the game, 104-104, on a layup by Kenny Anderson with 58
seconds left.

Bryant countered with a layup 14 seconds later, and after
Anderson tied it, 106-106, with a jumper with 32 seconds left,
Bryant hit a shot over Pierce just outside the free-throw line
with 11.9 seconds remaining.

Following a timeout, Walker wheeled around Horry and launched
his shot from the arc, which hit high off the backboard and
dropped in.

"With 2:50 to go with Paul going to the foul line down 10, we
said we're going to be down eight, he's going to can these two,"
Celtics coach John O'Brien said. "It was a matter of just
getting stops down at the other end because they were having
trouble stopping us down at their end. It's a victory where our
guys just plain old gutted it out."

The Lakers had not lost three consecutive games since April
21-26, 1999, when Kurt Rambis was the team's coach. Jackson
took over prior to the 1999-2000 season.

Pierce finished with 33 points and Walker added 30, 14 rebounds
and 10 assists for his second triple-double of the season.

"We got a big contribution from a lot of people tonight," said
Anderson, who had 14 points and six assists. "This was a whole
team effort. They are the world champs, and we have a lot of
respect for them, but we went out and played extremely hard, and
we didn't give up. That shows you a lot about this team."

Bryant had 27 points and nine assists for Los Angeles.
Shaquille O'Neal, who was activated off the injured list prior
to the game, had 25 and 17 rebounds for the Lakers, who
committed a season-high 21 turnovers.

The Lakers entered the contest second in the league with just
12.3 turnovers per game.

"It was a turnover-prone game for us," Jackson said. "They are
number-one in the league in steals and I don't know how many
they had (14), but they did have a lot. We just did not take
care of the ball tonight. A lot of it was errant passes, trying
to throw the ball into Shaq and not really reading the defense
well."

O'Neal had missed the Lakers' previous five games while nursing
an arthritic big toe. Los Angeles went 2-3 in his absence and
is just 7-6 without him this season.

"He looked good," Bryant said of his fellow All-Star. "He's been
keeping himself in shape in the time he had off. He's been able
to come back tonight and be at full strength. I don't think he
was fatigued."

Los Angeles outshot Boston from the field. The Lakers shot 53
percent (42-of-80) while the Celtics sank 45 percent (35-of-78).
It was the Lakers' first loss in 13 games this season in which
they shot 50 percent or better.

But Boston made 28-of-37 free throws, including 16-of-20 by
Pierce. Los Angeles made just 15-of-19 shots from the line.

The Lakers led 48-30 on a 20-foot jumper by Bryant with 5:51
remaining in the second quarter. Los Angeles took a 63-48
advantage into halftime after shooting 67 percent (26-of-39)
from the floor.